WHAT VIDEOGAMES ARE YOU PLAYING RIGHT NOW?

Star Ocean 2

Great PSX classic that I enjoy playing through every once in a while. I started a file, but my copy was really scratched up and wouldn't make it past Salva, so I ordered a used copy via Amazon. Picked it back up!

Been playing bits of Undertale alongside Max Payne 3. It definitely lives up to its praise.

Yeah, I just finished playing XTREME mode yesterday, and did a comparison normal mode playthrough today, and am now re-watching my favorite videos on the entirety of YouTube. I have only myself to blame, but... I'm blaming you for this!

Gotta say, though, playing the PS1 version has one thing going for it - Gate's death scream in the cutscene afterwards is pretty satisfying after having to put up with him floating about all lackadaisical for however many fucking minutes he decides he'd rather give you his bedroom eyes than actually attack. (Also, fuck those Red orbs and their badly programmed "time slow" effect eating my inputs)

XTREME mode was... interesting. Most of the new boss attacks don't mean shit since they all die in 20 seconds anyways. Infinity Mijinion is the only one that puts the fear of God into me, and on this difficulty setting, the BS goes into overdrive because he actually uses his fucking uninterruptible 50% HP recovery move - sometimes multiple times in a fight (my record was five heals in one fight jesus fuck). As far as I'm concerned he's the true final boss of the game, as Sigma, like you said, is pretty pitiful. Especially the last form, where you can just camp under his chin with Guard Shield up like a boy and his pappy watching the local fauna frolic... until pappy decides to murder them all with a hyper beam, that is. Enemy placement is so over-the-top in this mode that the normal difficulty feels like a ghost town by comparison.

Hilariously enough, beating XTREME mode is actually the second time only I've ever bothered beating any X game (X4 was the first for me). I hadn't even beaten X6's normal mode before this. Well, to be honest, I can't remember for certain if I beat X4, or just got really close. This might actually be my first X game clear :o

Anyways, I'm going to play the other X games now, probably starting with 2, 3, and 5 since I've barely touched them.

e: and Gold bless the artist for this image

I'm playing Disgaea 5 instead of working on videogames. I've already sunk about 10 hours despite only being up to chapter 4. Send help.

The characters/story/voice acting this time are absolutely abominable, but fortunately it seems like everything is skippable, so I'm ignoring all of that in favor of wading knee deep in the grind. They've changed up some of the progression mechanics while also adding new layers of things to grind, such that it seems like every turn I'm getting some sort of Pavlovian "Skill Up"/"Mastery Up"/"Level Up" reward on at least half of my characters. It's kind of crazy that they haven't just released a free-to-play mobile Item World with a gatcha system for acquiring characters, because they'd make millions (half of it from me).

Welp, that was my weekend, thanks for reading.

(Late edit) The hub world music is terrible. I hope "Extreme Outlaw" is unlockable in the future. La, la, la-la la-la-la!

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky

Jesus this game has waaaayyyyy too much story. By which I mean, waaaaaayyyyy too much of me holding B and waiting for the repetitive talking to finish so I can go back to making friends via beatdowns and saving lost pokemans.

The story is OK, but OH GOD after you've experienced it once it is soooooo annoying to sit through.

Also it would've been a jillion times more interesting if Grovyle were the actual bad guy and Dusknoir were really a good guy.

Played Megaman Legends on PSN, I'm not sure where the complaints about the camera movement and general core gameplay comes from. It's relatively easy and actually quite satisfying to shoot reaperbots and collect zenny. The only problematic part is that one robot type that can jump over you, which makes on the fly 360 movements jarring. There was also that one section where you fight a flying robot that goes overhead, which causes that "i'm an enemy not designed for this game at all" issue.

Despite all the minor flaws I think the main pull is just the world, and I don't mean in a Skyrim sort of way or that's it's 'immersive' that most people tend to describe things. But it has a adventurous charm that you'd get out of a ghibli movie and I think it does this better than even Wind Waker could. There really is something about walking through a lot of the areas that doesn't feel too purposeless or game goal driven. Hard to describe.

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Finished playing Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies and it was alright, though what was up with the HORRID typos? It was ALL over the place. You'd think since the game was only available for digital download they'd do a much better job ugh. The fact that you also can't examine every place you go sucks because there's a lot of interesting stuffs that'd probably result in some nice conversation between the lawyers (like those floating "yokai"s in Yokai Lane.)

Is it me or is their "mannerisms" seem a bit "frigid" in the courtroom? Like how Phoenix would stop a bit too long dramatically before banging his fist on the table and some of Athena's :o face? (She's got one of the most ridiculous bangs I've ever seen btw.) Also a bit sad that we couldn't see more "goofy Phoenix" anymore ;-; (Also also am I the only one who likes the "pixellated" characters more? o_O)

This weekend I'm likely gonna play a bunch of modded Diablo II.